4.14.2010

Best Thing I Ever Ate: Chocolate

I was literally rendered speechless by this chocolate cake. It's not five, not ten, not twenty, but TWENTY FOUR layers of unparalleled chocolate decadence. I mean, how do you even make a cake with twenty four layers, especially layers so thin, so whispy and so filled with rich, oozing ganache? It's like magic. Just look at this thing!

The chocolate cake I'm talking about is from Strip House Steak House in New York, a restaurant I'd never heard of, much less planned an entire trip around. It was Michael Psilakis' meal of choice during Food Network's The Best Thing I Ever Ate: Guilty Pleasure episode and once I saw it, the entire rest of the episode was a wash. But now, I'm totally committed to finding – read: devouring – this majestic tower of cake.

Where's your LA location, Strip House???

Michael Psilakis showing off his prized possession

Now, towering chocolate cakes are nothing new; they're all over the place. Cheesecake Factory has one, many deli's have them, etc. But I've never walked by those cakes and lost my breath. Or imagined (literally) cutting and running out the door with them. The oversized cakes I've seen always appear dry, far too cakey (ironic, I know) and big for "big" sake. When you imagine cutting through it with your fork, it doesn't bring to mind thoughts...well, like this:

Can you even imagine? I was so inspired I made Bryan rewind the episode so I could take photos of it. That's right, I took photos of my TV screen. I realize that's somewhat insane, but I figured if I could share the love with at least one other person, it would be worth it. Not like viewership of BTIEA isn't high enough. :)

If you live in New York, New Jersey, Vegas, Key West, Naples or Houston, please please please go eat this and let me know how it is. All I know is the next time I'm in Vegas, I'm all over this cake. I might as well make my reservation now. Until then, talk about sweet dreams...

7 comments:

Wow, that looks incredible. The first thing I made with my Kitchenaid mixer (10+ years ago) was a 12 layer cake I saw in Oprah magazine. Of course, I only had 2 cake pans at the time, so it took forever. Then the whole thing slid apart within an hour....and didn't actually taste that good. Just remembering makes me chuckle. Please let us know when you try this (eating OR making!)!

Well, for only $110 plus shipping, you can order it online! hahahttp://www.neimanmarcus.com/p/Strip-House-24-Layer-Chocolate-Cake-chocolate-cake/prod36620077___/?isFilter=&icid=&searchType=MAIN&rte=%252Fsearch.jsp%253FN%253D0%2526Ntt%253Dchocolate%252Bcake%2526_requestid%253D12480&eItemId=prod36620077&cmCat=search